<b>Function and Limitations of</b><b> </b><b>B</b><b>enevolence:</b><b> </b><b>The</b><b> </b><b>Impact of Assistance Strategies and Emotional</b><b> </b><b>I</b><b>ntervention on Political Trust in China</b>

There are two paths of political trust research: institutional and cultural. Based on questionnaire experiments, this study analyses how assistance strategies and emotional intervention affect the political trust of Chinese people. Four experimental stimuli are formed based on the presence or absence of two strategies of material assistance and policy assistance and emotional intervention. It is found that assistance has an impact in enhancing Chinese people's political trust, and policy assistance has a significantly higher impact on political trust than material assistance. Meanwhile emotional intervention in any of the assistance strategies is effective, but compared to material assistance, policy assistance is rather ineffective after adding emotional intervention. In terms of causal mechanisms, sense of acquisition as a mediating variable has a direct and significant effect on political trust, andsense of fairness does not have a direct effect on political trust but needs to play an indirect role through the help of sense of acquisition. This experimental study enriches the institutional and cultural approach of political trust, and taps into the dilemma faced by authoritarian Chinese government in enhancing political trust, a composite strategy that implies that the Chinese government's road to improving political trust is full of bumps.